Mal's 2017 dall sheep success

[dallen]

Alaska has a youth sheep season which began on August 1. Mal tagged hers on August 3. She worked hard and earned this.

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[archer wapiti]

Awesome!

 

[Murph1]

That's just too cool!

 

[awaldro7]

congrats!

 

[Superkodiak38]

Outstanding !

 

[Becca]

This makes me so happy! I have followed your caribou adventures with Mal in the past, and she's quite the trooper. Kudos to both of you for getting out there and bringing home a great sheep!

 

[luke moffat]

That is too cool!!! Congrats to you both!!!

 

[LIWolverine]

Wow! That's is awesome!! Congrats!


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[duchntr]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.. and good luck on your upcoming hunts.

 

[dallen]

Hey Ryan Avery, I tried to reply to your PM but got an error saying your mail box is full.

 

[Ryan Avery]

Hey Ryan Avery, I tried to reply to your PM but got an error saying your mail box is full.

It's cleared out now,

Thanks!

 

[6mm Remington]

Congratulations on a great ram! Man what an experience and a wonderful lifetime memory for the young lady!

 

[Steve O]

What a great accomplishment. Good job to all!

 

[PNWGATOR]

Congratulations! What an amazing success

 

[Daniel_M]

That is so awesome!

 

[mtnwrunner]

How bout a story????????

Randy

 

[wymtnpounder]

That's awesome! I hope some day I can take my girls sheepin.

 

[dallen]

And the story............

Mal’s sheep hunt….

The girl's got grit! At the end of last season, I asked Mal what she wanted to hunt next……knowing that the 2017 season could very likely be her last season hunting with me for a while as she is going to college next year. She’s almost certainly going out of state, and has applied to both the USMA (West Point) and the Air Force Academy (and we are all praying for her to get accepted and receive a congressional appointment ). After some thought….she said “I want to hunt sheep”. I thought to myself…I haven’t hunted sheep in almost 20 years, and all the areas I used to hunt are now drawing permit only. So we put in for drawing permits for sheep and just like most everyone else – we got the dreaded "Did Not Draw."

After a bit of searching, asking, researching…I chose an area that I thought was doable. I had a good friend take us flying in the area and we found a hill that had several groups of rams and quite a few big groups of ewes and lambs. After the aerial scouting, we did some ground/trail searching in order to get back into the area. We had a friend lend us his 6 wheeled Ranger, which really helped get all our stuff back to the base camp. After doing the scouting, we were set to go.



We left Sunday morning, two days before season, and spent the first day driving to our base camp. We set up our base camp, set up the electric fence around the camp, and then started to repack food and supplies into our spike camp.

We left base camp the morning of the 31st and spent six hours getting to our spike camp destination. The route in was horrible…due to some poor map recon by the guide (me). We got spike camp set up, and settled in for the next morning’s hunt. Overnight, Mal came down with a bit of a cold. She had a head cold, plus sore throat and a bit of a fever. I gave her some meds and she never hesitated or complained about it one bit. Luckily, by day two, most of the symptoms were gone and she got to enjoy herself a bit more. So, opening morning, we headed up our mile long 900 foot gain hill, headed for the ridgeline near the area that I had spotted a promising group of rams during the flyover. We got to the top and carefully peaked over the other side. We had sheep right below us on a rocky spur. Five rams of various sizes from ½ curl to one that was worth looking at. After a bit of looking, I told her the biggest ram was close, but not close enough. I figured he was short of full by 2” and was probably a 7 year old.

We ended up running into another pair of hunters later toward evening (Rob, I think). The pair had flown onto the ridge opposite to ours and set up their camp. We chatted a bit and he told us that he’d flown the area a bit during the summer and that there was one older legal ram that he knew of in the area.

The next morning, same routine. Got to the top of the ridge and ran into more sheep here and there, all ewes/lambs and small rams. We did some exploring and found a ram bedded at the entrance of a cave in a very steep rocky chute. We watched that ram for about 6 hours, and after much effort of trying to make him grow and age…..I told her that I had more no than yes in my brain on him, so again, we passed.

During the day, we noticed that our neighbors had pulled up camp and left. I’m not sure if he decided to check on a different area, or just decided not to get into a competition on one area. Whatever the reason, it was nice that we had the area to ourselves.

Next morning…same thing. Decided to move up to the ridge again and take a look at an area that we had not spent much time in, and appeared to be where the bigger rams we did see headed toward. After a bit of walking and glassing, we spotted a ram bedded about 700 yards below us in a grassy little bowl. Putting the spotting scope on him, and seeing the tip of the curl flaring out, I told Mal that he definitely had possibilities, and we needed a closer look. So after a bit of planning, we moved to a spot that overlooked the bedded ram. As we were crawling toward the edge, we spotted him trotting diagonally away from where he was. I thought to myself, he could not have picked us up where we were….what the heck is he doing? He trotted a bit and then began to feed. I was on the scope measuring, drawing imaginary lines….stick tests.....circles, rings…..parallel lines .....the works, and finally came to the conclusion that he was legal….well, I was almost positive. I gave her a 99% positive, but told her that he looked much heavier than the other rams we seen, and was guessing he was older and his tips looked worn down. She asked me the range, and I told her “he’s at 356 yards”. She gave me that look and then said she wasn’t sure about taking a shot that long. I told her the rifle will do it, as long as the person on the trigger can do it. She got back on the gun and decided to wait as he was angling back toward us feeding. After a bit, she asked me the range again, and I told her “he’s at 344”. She still wasn’t sure. I told her we could move a bit to get closer, but he may pick us up as we were on the forward slope and in his view. She said, “let me see if I can get a good solid rest”. So, she set herself up and was aiming. I asked her “are you going to shoot?” and glanced at her, just in time to see her squeezing the trigger. I quickly moved my eye back behind the scope just in time for her shot. I watch the bullets path as it arced and then dropped right into the spot just behind his shoulder, then seen the hair “poof” and he went down like a rock. I had both hands in the air doing a quiet victory whoop and then reached over and bear hugged her, telling her what a great shot that was……again, I'm not sure who was the more excited or happy .....

We got down to the sheep and looked him over. He was a heavy horned ram, and aged at 8.5 and just made a bit past full curl. Fantastic ram!!.


We spent some time camping and boning out the ram. At one point we had a bug crazed bull caribou run past us at about 15 feet, just blowing and shaking his head...we both turned and look at each other and simultaneously said " that was cool . So, the fun was over and we got him apart then back to camp.

Then the next morning broke down spike camp and started the long heavy walk out. I guessed I had about 80 pounds on my back and she had about 65 on hers. Never heard her complain. I would ask “how we doing back there” every once in a while as we walked out, and the reply was “I’m good”…..every time. We got back to base camp, and packed up to head out to the truck and go eat a fat greasy cheese burger and fries…….

I find myself thinking how the heck we got here so fast. This is most likely the last year that she’ll actually live at home…….then its college/academy and then her own life. It’s hard to understand the happiness and sadness that a dad feels at the prospects of a daughter who has grown into a young adult, and is about ready to start their own life. Just too fast. I know she’ll do great things in her life; she’s got intelligence, determination, ambition and a lot of fortitude. I have no doubts she’ll be successful in her endeavors, whether it’s competing to get into one of the service academies or in her pursuit to become a medical doctor, she’ gonna do just fine. We leave for caribou in a couple of days…..so another story coming soon..........




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[Mad Mountain Mike]

Well done. Congratulations to both of you!!!

 

[SLDMTN]

Great story and pictures, thank you for posting! Two more years and I'll be able to do this with my oldest daughter, I can't wait.